Fraud Draws 7 Years Judge Also Fines Briton In Fuel Case

November 15, 1986|By JAMES H. TOLPIN, Staff Writer

An Englishman who tried to defraud prominent investors by claiming he could turn water into motor fuel and virtually eliminate the need for gasoline was sentenced Friday to seven years in prison and fined $7,000.

Ronald Albert Lasteed, 43, did not address U.S. District Judge James Paine during the sentencing in Fort Lauderdale.

But Lasteed`s lawyer, F. Lee Bailey, told Paine that despite the jury`s guilty verdict, there was ``no victim, no damage, no likelihood there ever would (have been) one.``

Bailey said that even though Lasteed knew his product, called Ionagen, was not a panacea to the world`s ills, he thought it would have some usefulness in lessening the West`s dependence on oil.

Assistant U.S. Attorney David Lewis said Lasteed deserved a ``substantial`` prison term.

``This defendant has shown you no sorrow for what he has done, not one lick of remorse or regret,`` Lewis said.

In September after a nine-day trial, a jury in West Palm Beach deliberated 4 1/2 hours before declaring Lasteed guilty.

A parade of prosecution witnesses, including Texas oil tycoon Nelson Bunker Hunt, former astronaut Tom Stafford and President Reagan`s former science adviser, testified Lasteed made outlandish claims in his attempt to secure investments.

Hunt`s cousin, entrepreneur Al Hill Jr., said he test drove a Jaguar powered by what he was told was Ionagen and that it ran well. Later, he found himself on the verge of plunking down a non-refundable $500,000 deposit on a $10 million investment in Ionagen production.

But he became suspicious at the last minute and called the FBI and U.S. Attorney`s Office in Dallas.

The 1984 indictment charged Lasteed and two co-defendants with 19 false claims about Ionagen, which was portrayed as ``moleculary restructured`` water.

They claimed former astronaut Stafford was going to invest $10 million in the Ionagen process and become the chief executive officer in a company created to commercially develop Ionagen.

Stafford denied that to jurors.

George Keyworth, Reagan`s former science adviser, said the Jaguar had run well for him too, but tests showed the substance said to be the fuel was ordinary distilled water.

At trial, other scientists said tests of other Ionagen samples showed it to be nearly pure methanol.

Bailey argued throughout the trial that Lasteed never represented his product as anything but a fuel that worked when mixed in a solution of 20 percent Ionagen and 80 percent gasoline.

Lasteed`s co-defendant, Joseph Peeples, who was sentenced to 10years after a separate trial, may have misrepresented Ionagen, but not Lasteed, Bailey argued.